Synechdoche, Purgatorio

Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy as the archetypal journey of life unfolding towards Beauty.

A. The New Yorker considers Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy as a major cultural narrative which has influenced the Judeo-Christian Western civilisation since being first published in 1472.

B. Harvard University’s Cass Sunstein has a new book out on manipulation. One example of this is delusional beliefs that spread throughout society (vector-like as per McKenzie Wark) as conspiracy theories (and that can take other, more surface-level seemingly benign forms as well - such as managerial mindsets and “business as usual” assumptions in a firm when the external world is actually shifting disruptively pretty dramatically). But at least there is reportedly life on Mars (David Bowie). Sunstein writes and publishes new books frequently - the next one is on conformity.

C. At OCIS 2023, I heard a Q&A talk anecdote about Southeast Asia’s cybercrime compounds. This led to several out-of-session hallway, lift, and coffee conversations - where the really important (HUMINT) work can be done at an academic conference. There is now a new sociological book on the compounds. You do not want to do anthropological ethnographic research in them.

D. I missed Metallica’s recent Melbourne show (still not having seen them live since 1993 for two nights on the Black album tour with former bassist Jason Newsted). Here you go.

E. Khan Academy on how the hedge fund strategies merger arbitrage and long-short work.

F. Geopolitical risk from the Meridian Summit 2025.

G. How Thomas Bayes’ theorem / rule for probabilistic thinking and the “confidence testing” of subjectivist beliefs works.

H. I got to use a Bloomberg Terminal at Australia’s private, entrepreneurial-focused Bond University. A brief video on how you can, too (if you can get access to one) to understand financial markets.